Veterans, families call for better access to make claims for exposure-related illness
A new report calls for the federal government to make it easier for service members and others exposed to health risks to find the information they need when making medical claims.
Report recommends evidence be made more accessible to support medical claims
Amanda Pfeffer · CBC News
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Hakan Haytaoglu was a military pilot who worked secret missions for the Canadian Armed Forces during his 35-year career.
At the age of 55, just months shy of retirement, he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer called neuroendocrine carcinoma.
He sought support through a medical claim to Veterans Affairs Canada, but the claim was denied.
Haytaoglu decided to appeal.
Hakan Haytaoglu was a pilot with the Canadian Armed Forces until his diagnosis with an aggressive cancer. His wife fought for medical benefits and won. (Submitted by Maura-Jo Haytaoglu)
For months, while caring for her dying husband, Maura-Jo Haytaoglu hunted down the evidence he needed to connect his illness to his job.
"I dug and I dug while he was sick in bed," she said. "I sat beside him and I researched and I dug and I put the proper people in my corner that fought for us."
The military pilot who friends and family called Hawk died just a few weeks before his case could be heard before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board in August 2025.
So Maura-Jo did it for him, and won.
"It was the hardest day of my entire life, beyond watching my husband die in my arms," Haytaoglu said.
"It shouldn't be this hard for those who served their country."
Maura-Jo Haytaoglu and husband Hakan as he received chemo treatments following his diagnosis of a rare cancer. He died in July 2025, just a few weeks shy of the appeal of his medical claim. (Submitted by Maura-Jo Haytaoglu)
A new report by the House of Commons national defence committee states there are 2,750 Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces contaminated sites in Canada as of June 2026.
Among 11 recommendations, the report calls for the federal government to make it easier for service members and others exposed to health risks to find the information they need when making medical claims.
CBC News reached out to Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces for reaction to the call for more access, and did not hear back in time for publication.
Invisible crisis
The report cites witness testimony by veterans like Erin Zimmerman.
Zimmerman has been helping more than two dozen veterans and their families locate evidence to support appeals for medical claims, including the Haytaoglu case.
Zimmerman says her expertise in research as a civil servant came in handy in her own fight for answers. The 48-year-old mother of four has been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Parkinson's disease. She worked at CFB Moose Jaw in sections now an active contamination site, including during one of her pregnancies.
She said she had never been informed of the risks.
Some of Erin Zimmerman's committee testimony was included in the final report released in October. (Submitted by Erin Zimmerman)
Zimmerman is grateful to see her calls for more transparency in the committee report.
One of its recommendations suggests the federal government "proactively inform personnel and families currently and previously living and/or working on Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces sites, bases and wings of environmental risks and assessment results."
"We're in a crisis," Zimmerman said. "But this crisis is an invisible demographic."
Veterans face significant difficulty obtaining reliable information about past toxic exposures, according to Jim Hutton with Veterans with Cancer Inc.
The non-profit works with veterans diagnosed with cancer to establish the connection between their service and their illness to back medical claims.
At the same time, Hutton said, Veterans Affairs does not properly track exposure-related cancer claims.
He said this leads to veterans having to file access to information requests and searching old government records, in multiple databases, to prove the risk they faced while serving their country.
"Veterans should not have to become investigators," Hutton said in an email to CBC News. "That is an unreasonable burden."
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The group documented cases where veterans failed to find the evidence they need because historical exposure information is missing, or can't be found in their military service records.
On the upside, once the evidence is found, it can help others who worked alongside that service member. That's what happened in Hawk Haytaoglu's case.
Maura-Jo Haytaoglu said the information used in her husband's successful appeal is now helping the surviving service members that worked with him on a secret mission some 30 years ago.
"Three of them are dead because of cancer, one is battling Stage 4 cancer and one has beat cancer three times," she said.
The surviving members used the precedent in their own claims.
"My husband's legacy lives on because we had the courage to say no, we're not going to accept this."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amanda Pfeffer has worked for the CBC across the country, including Montreal, Vancouver, Fredericton, Quebec City and Ottawa. She welcomes story ideas and tips at amanda.pfeffer@cbc.ca, or twitter @onthebeat1.
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